“Parson Cliderhow had his paw in the mischief.  She was in a manner forced either to wed, or, in the end, to have found herself and her children with never a roof-tree above their heads.”

“How?—­Sir William did not leave her portionless?”

“I know not; but Sir Osmund had, or pretended he had, got a grant from the Earl of Lancaster for possession of all that belonged to Sir William, as a reward for his great services; and unless she wed him—­why, you may guess what follows, when a lone woman is left in a wooer’s clutches.  I shall never forget their wedding-day; it should rather have been her burying, by the look on’t.  Her long veil was more like a winding-sheet than a bride’s wimple.”

During this recital the palmer drew his seat closer to the hearth.  He leant him over his staff, absorbed in that conscious stupor which seems at once shut out from all connection with external objects, and yet intensely alive to their impressions.  Suddenly he rose, tightened his sandals, and looking round, appeared as if about to depart.

“It is our late master’s birthday,” said the loquacious informant:  “ten years ago there was free commons at the hall for man and beast.  Now, save on almous-days, when some half-dozen doitering old bodies get a snatch at the broken meat, not a man of us thrusts his nose into the knight’s buttery but by stealth.  Sir William’s banner has not been hoisted, as it was wont on this day, since he left, with fifty armed men in his train, to help the king, then hard pressed in the Scottish wars.  Ye may get an alms among the poor to-day, but have an eye to the Welsh bowmen:  these be the knight’s privy guard, and hold not the quality of his guests in much respect.”

Here the smith’s angry garrulity was interrupted by Daniel Hardseg, a sort of deputy house-steward, whose duty it was to look after all business not immediately connecting itself with any other department in the household.  He was prime executive in most of the out-door duty, and a particular crony at the hovel.  His “Hilloa!” was terrific.

“Why, a murrain to thee, goodman Grim, thy fire is colder than my halidome; the sun is so high it puts it out, I reckon.  Here have I two iron pots, a plate from my master’s best greaves, and a pair of spurs that want piecing, and I’m like to tinker them as I list on a cold stithy.  Get out, thou”—­Here he became aware of an additional inmate to Grim’s dwelling; and this discovery for a while checked the copious torrent of Dan’s eloquence.  Shortly, Darby drew him aside, and from their looks it might be gathered that some scheme was negotiating for the pilgrim’s safe admission at the hall.  To an entreaty, more strenuously urged on the part of our diplomatist, Dan replied, in a louder tone—­

“Why, look thee, gossip, it were as much as my lugs were worth—­but—­I’ll e’en try.”

“We shall hear some news about Sir William, depend on’t, an’ thou get him a word with my lady.”